Dinner Guest: Me Summary

In this poem the poet is the guest of honor at a meal with polite white people who are ashamed of their whiteness and wish to probe Hughes' mind in order to arrive at a clear diagnosis and solution to the "Negro Problem."

Dinner Guest: Me Analysis

Hughes takes as his subject the awkward relationship between champions of the black community and their white sympathizers. The white people murmur that they are ashamed of being white even as they eat lobster and drink fine wine on Park Avenue. They may feel some remorse, but they lack the passion, insight, and commitment to live a life other than the one they live. Blacks represent a problem to be solved rather than a people to be engaged and loved. They are ignorant about black culture and see only the sad elements...